Yeah affiliate traffic is never going to go away. However the acceptance of new affiliates to ones program is going to be what has already changed and will keep on changing and becoming more strict.
Instead of signing up and being good to go. You will have to contact them and ask for acceptance, prove that you have real traffic and can add real value to their program, then get the signup form, signup and wait for approval, and finally begin sending traffic. The affiliate managers will be more in charge of watching affiliate fraud instead of in charge of getting them whatever they want or basically board whoring. Maybe not totally but there will be more emphasis on this.
That is all, many programs will continue going out of business but only the ones that dont sell. Plenty still do sell and will continue too. There is no shame in shutting down an affiliate program, if its not working its not working. You gotta do something else. The only shame is pretending it is working and keeping doing what is not making you money. For example Beta Dollars truthfully at this point will most likely be shut down in the coming months, as its probably the least profitable sector of my adult business. Its cool though, its just the way it is.
I cant keep up with the porn pros and the brazzers and the you name its. So I'll stick to building traffic.